Organizers of a free weekly event in North Adams, Massachusetts want to boost cycling in the city of roughly 13,000.
Beneath the rising Route 2 overpass across from the MASS MoCA campus, a group of about 30 bikers is forming.
“I love to ride bikes. It’s just a fun event to get out, meet some people, ride a bike around town," said city native Brian Sapienza. "Just a fun evening.”
He's a regular at the weekly North Adams Downtown Bike Around.
“Starts right here at St. Anthony’s parking lot," Sapienza told WAMC. "We ride down Marshall Street, usually go up River Street to Eagle, and then we cross Eagle to Main Street, go up Main Street, then go down towards the MCLA campus, come back, do another loop and end up back here at the parking lot. Takes about an hour. It’s about a three and a half mile ride.”
The Bike Around is in its second year, bringing cycling enthusiasts into the streets of North Adams every Thursday evening at 6:30.
“Mass Bike originally came and did a bicycle assessment here in North Berkshire, and one of the things they said is — to our group, Bike North Berkshire — hey, we need more bike people in the road. You have infrastructure, you have a lot of things of those things you need, you have bike racks. But you’re really missing people riding bikes," said Amanda Chilson of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition.
She’s the nonprofit group’s Mass In Motion coordinator, working to implement a statewide initiative to battle obesity through exercise and healthy eating. Bike North Berkshire is another grassroots organization Chilson is involved in, encouraging a sense of bike culture in the county for both riders and the drivers they share the road with.
“A group of us, part of Bike North Berkshire, was like, how do we get people riding bikes? And we’re like — consistency," she told WAMC. "That’s the most important thing. The same time, the same place, and people seeing us as a pack each week.”
Chilson, who is from North Adams, says the Bike Around has taken on an unexpectedly vibrant life of its own.
“A bike collective is in the works, and it all came from the Downtown Bike Around," she said. "Kids riding bikes — like, people started bringing their kids and we definitely didn’t expect that, so we’re like, OK, how do we deal with kids being a part of it? So we worked with that.”
“This is like my eighth time doing it," said Sam Bullett, 9. He's one of those kids. Bullett said his dad turned him on to the Bike Around and he hasn’t missed one since.
“Sometimes there’s kids here and you can bike with everybody," he told WAMC. "You can bike around town and if there’s any new people here they can see the whole town.”
“I love riding my bike, and this is one of the few opportunities I get," said Kristin Graves. She is one of those new people, having moved to North Adams from New York City.
“And I was riding my bike there, but now I’m here," said Graves. "The bike lanes there a little better, better marked — but this is safe because it’s lots of people going. It feels like a good thing to do. It’s good exercise. I feel like I’m flying when I’m riding my bike.”
The Bike Around hasn’t just excited its cadre of weekly attendees. City leaders say the enthusiasm generated by its success will have real world manifestations.
“The next piece of promoting bike culture is linking us up to the bike trail on both the north end and the south end," said North Adams Mayor Tom Bernard. “As Adams extends the line from its current terminal point on Lime Street into the North Adams line and we find the alignment to bring it into the city, and then the work that we’ll do on the west end on the Williamstown line to bring in the first leg of the bike trail. I know that we’re working with Mass DOT on the 25 percent design plans to start moving forward on that.”
